


Birthday Wishes

by aIexanderbane



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 6 + 1, M/M, it's a bday keith fic bc it's his bday?? obviously??, just some smol drabbles tbh, kinda boring tbh, some slight angst, tiny bit of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 23:05:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12467980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aIexanderbane/pseuds/aIexanderbane
Summary: 6 times Keith was alone on his bday & the 1 time he wasn't.





	Birthday Wishes

**I.**

 

The first time Keith spent his birthday alone, he was twelve years old and in an orphanage. After being tossed around from foster home to foster home for nearly a year, there weren’t any more families willing to take him in. So, for the first time ever, he was alone on his birthday. Keith told himself that it wasn’t a big deal, that he hadn’t celebrated it when his father was alive anyway, but he couldn’t help but frown as he sat on that windowsill the night of his twelfth birthday, observing the stars. He closed his eyes and inhaled, wishing for something even though he had no candles to blow out

 

_Please, let the coming year be easier._

 

**II.**

 

His thirteenth birthday wasn’t much better. Keith was stuck in the attic of a foster home with a family who didn’t care about him, a family who had their own kids and didn’t have time for him. Keith tried to tell himself that he was lucky, that at least weren’t like his last foster family. Still, he felt so alone as he leaned his head against the wall and looked up through the tiny window, once again making a wish for the stars instead of blowing out candles.

 

_Please, please, don’t let it get worse from here._

 

**III.**

 

On the night of Keith’s fourteenth birthday, he felt slightly more okay with being alone. He didn’t have to worry about rejection, or being abandoned by people he had grown to love. Instead he just, didn’t love anyone. Keith felt as if he had lost his purpose to live, so he told himself to just keep living until he found one. Then he found out about the Garrison, and Keith found something to fight for. Although, he had missed the window to apply that year and only had one thing in mind as he looked out the window of the orphanage, a small smile on his face, even though the loneliness was slowly eating him alive.

 

_Please, let me get in._

 

**IV.**

 

When Keith turned fifteen, he had just gotten accepted to go to Galaxy Garrison the coming year, and hadn’t felt that happy in a long while. It had been the only thing he had been able to think about, the only thing he even talked about the few times a foster family actually took interest in his life. But, Keith still felt so alone as he leaned back to lean against the chimney on the current foster family’s house. They had a rather flat roof so he wasn’t scared of falling off, not that he would’ve been even if it had been a tilting roof. It was a really chilly night, seeing as it was October and he hadn’t thought to put on a jacket before climbing up on the roof. Keith didn’t care, though. He smiled up at the sky, basking in the soft moonlight as he once again wished on the stars.

 

_Please, let the happiness stick._

 

**V.**

 

Keith’s sixteenth birthday was one of the better ones. It had been a good year, he had gotten close with an older man, Shiro, who practically saw him as a younger, struggling, slightly annoying brother. But, he had left for an important space mission to one of Pluto’s moons, Kerberos, and Keith was all alone. It was okay, though. He still felt awfully lonely, but he didn’t’ feel as if it was eating him alive anymore.

So, on his birthday, Keith snuck up on the roof and looked up at the sky, once again making a wish.

 

_Please, let Shiro come back soon, and unharmed._

 

**VI.**

 

Keith was seventeen and furious. Shiro had been gone for over a year, declared dead by the Garrison. He never made it back from Kerberos, and Keith was all alone again. He had even gotten kicked out of the Garrison for “disciplinary issues,” and truly was alone. He lived in a shack in the middle of the desert, and his only friends were the damn reptiles that would crawl into his boots. Keith’s seventeenth birthday was therefore nothing better than any other one he had experienced, it was instead worse as he felt angry at the world and had isolated himself from everything but the stars. Those damn stars that he still wished on.

 

_Please, give me a purpose again._

 

**\+ I.**

 

Keith was trying not to panic as he rushed through the halls of the castle, his blade clutched tightly in hand as he sprinted towards the lounging area. He stopped running, however, when he noticed that the longue was empty. He hesitated before looking around, utterly confused when he didn’t find anyone.

 

“Guys?” he called, his heart hammering in his chest. Was he too late? The distress call hadn’t reached him that long ago, and he had tried to get there as quickly as possible. Keith bit back a scream of frustration and closed his eyes for a second, just giving himself one second to hope that they were all okay. He opened his mouth to call for them once more, his voice cracking this time, “Guys?”

 

Nothing.

 

Keith rubbed at his eyes to prevent himself from crying, fearing even more that they had been killed or taken. He was just about to leave the room to look through the rest of the castle when the mice appeared out of seemingly nowhere and tripped over each other to get to him. He hesitantly crouched down to pick them up, knowing that Allura probably would have his head if anything happened to her beloved mice. Just as Keith was about to pick the first one up, he heard footsteps behind him. He was quick up on his feet with the blade in hand again, ready to attack as he whipped around, but almost dropped the blade when his brain registered what he was seeing.

 

They were all there, alive and unharmed. Hunk and Pidge were carrying what looked like a giant, white and blue cake between them while the others held something wrapped in some sort of blue fabric. Keith blinked.

 

“You’re all okay?” he questioned quietly, feeling relief rush through him when they just nodded, all of them smiling. It would have creeped him out if he hadn’t been so relieved. “What- what’s with the cake? What’s going on?”

 

Shiro grinned and stepped forwards, so Keith slowly lowered his dagger and put it back in the holster. The older man put his human hand on Keith’s shoulder.

 

“We’re celebrating your birthday, of course,” he said as if it was obvious, and Keith was pretty sure that he was going to cry any minute now if that was true. “We can’t just let you turn eighteen and now throw you a party.”

 

“Yeah! What he said,” Matt said loudly and nodded, gesturing with his arms as he spoke. Keith paused before speaking ever so softly.

 

“You guys know when my birthday is?” he asked, voice cracking once again. Damn, he started feeling as if he was going through puberty all over again.

 

“Of course we do, Mullet,” Lance said, “You’re our family, and family celebrates each other’s birthdays. Duh.”

 

Family. Keith hadn’t had one of those in a long while, but the word brought warmth that coursed through his body as he blinked repeatedly to stop himself from crying. Pidge started whining about her arms starting to hurt, so she and Hunk went to the dining room to put it on the table, Matt going after them as he started asking Pidge if Keith really would like his present.

 

Shiro removed his hand from Keith’s shoulder and walked after the others after telling him to join when he was ready. Allura and Coran were both smiling, although they did look a little confused, as if the humans celebrated birthdays in a weird way. They both congratulated him as if he had won some sort of prize before joining the others, leaving Keith alone with Lance and the mice that were currently climbing all over Keith’s shoes.

 

“Lan–“ Keith was cut off as Lance in two long strides walked up to him and put his arms around his waist so quickly that Keith barely registered what was happening. Lance hugged him so tightly, as if he was afraid that he would leave.

 

“Happy birthday, Keith,” he whispered as the shorter of the two hesitantly hugged him back. “I missed you.”

 

Keith closed his eyes and imagined the stars with a small smile on his face.

 

_There’s nothing I’d like to wish for today, I have everything I could ever wish for._

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't proofread this bc i'm lazy, sorry


End file.
